Tension throughout the Middle East means Israel must look beyond its highly publicized problem with Iran. One of the latest incidents—a deadly terror attack along its once peaceful border with Egypt—highlights the danger Israel faces from all sides.
One Israeli soldier died when three heavily armed terrorists ambushed an IDF unit giving water to African migrants. The soldiers returned fire and killed the terrorists. The army said they prevented a major terror attack.
The 144-mile-long Sinai border fence is months away from completion, but it’s not Israel’s only defense.
“We deploy around the borders of Israel to try to find threats, enemies basically, units of terror that try to penetrate Israel,” Col. Oded told CBN News. “We have the technology, the technique and we have the right soldiers to do it and to find the enemy before he penetrates Israel.”
As head of the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) Combat Intelligence Gathering School, the colonel recently gave CBN News an exclusive look at training exercises near Israel’s southern border with Egypt.
“The most difficult thing is to try to keep up with things that happen,” 2nd Lt. Shai said. “You know you have sometimes a boring mission and you need to keep attention so you [do] not fall asleep or things like that. Always stay focused, that’s the hardest thing.”
Using observation equipment like high-powered binoculars, soldiers can scan the border for trouble 24/7 and stop it when it comes.
“We have increasing threats in the border between Egypt and Israel, not from Egypt but from terror cells that are operating in the Sinai Desert,” Oded said. “It is a different threat and we developed that right capabilities to find it and stop it before it succeed[s].”
That was also the case in August when combat intelligence soldiers eliminated terrorists who killed 16 Egyptian border guards and then crossed into Israel.
“The IDF is prepared for every mission, in every border and we are part of the capabilities that the IDF has to keep the peace and to prepare for war,” Oded said.
